[Radovan Geist]

Last May I´ve made a bunch of blades for some future projects. They were hardened and tempered by a professional company, and I´ve received them back early September. So now a more exciting phase of the process has started

Now, as the title of this thread indicates quite clearly, one of the blades was made for a "storta". The inspiration was taken from this original piece: http://d13z1xw8270sfc.cloudfront.net/origin/33233/p1010415.jpg

Basic stats for my blade: Length: 50 cm + 15 cm tang; width: 5 cm (close to hilt); the blade is 6mm thick at the base, tapering to 4mm in the middle and 3 mm close to tip. It is basically straight (the original is little curved), and the fullers are arranged differently (personal preference). The tang ended up to be a little beefy, I might cut from it when making the grip.

First two pictures show the blade as it arrived from hardening / tempering after some quick cleaning and then after a rough polish. I´ve started to work on a hilt, but did not take any pictures yet. More to come soon...

[Shahril Dzulkifli]

With the blade complete, the Storta now needs a handle.

[Radovan Geist]

sure it does.

Here´s some progress after this weekend. The cross-guard / knuckle-bow was made from a 6*25mm bar of soft steel, cut to shape with an angle grinder. Then I´ve made a tang-hole, using the drill and hand-files. That´s what you see on picture 1.

After that I´ve flattened both ends with hammer (I wanted to have the ends some few mm thicker), and made the final shape with angle grinder and hand files, making some decorative file-work around the tang area. After that, a loop from the same soft steel has been welded to the cross, and the whole hilt was cleaned with files and sand paper. That´s picture 2.

Picture 3 shows it mounted to the blade, with quillons S-curved.

Pommel will be made from an iron sphere I´ve bought some time ago in a local hardware shop. Of course, it will need some re-shaping, but for a basic shape it fits the purpose perfectly. The last picture shows it with tang-hole drilled, mounted on the blade. That´s where I got last night.

All in all, I´m quite happy how it handles. With POB some 4cm from the cross-guard it´s easily maneuverable and quite lively.

[Luka Borscak]

Nice! Spherical pommels looks good with such wide blades...

[Radovan Geist]

Thanks Luka, I completely agree on spherical pommels and wide blades.

Now, this project is almost finish. First, I have finished the pommel by making 8 narrow groves with hand files, and cleaning it with sand paper an a brass brush. Then, I´ve made a handle with core from some hard wood I had lying around, and a twisted wire wrap. After the final assembly, all was cleaned once again with brass brush to achieve a matt finish. I´m attaching few pictures of the whole piece, and some details.

All in all, I´m quite happy with it. The are some flaws which could have been avoided: the blade could have been a little longer, and the next time I will do something similar, I will surely make it with a slight curve; the finish of the pommel and cross-guard is not perfect, some file-marks are still visible, etc. On the other hand, I´m really happy with the weld - after many failures and tries, I have finally achieved a weld which is clean and solid (at least, as much as I could judge from my "crash tests" - we will see when it´s put to use in stage combat). The storta looks massive, but it´s relatively well maneuverable and fast.

The last thing I still need to do is a scabbard. This will be something simple, with wooden core and (black) leather coating. I will post pictures when it´s finished.